Unmunsa Temple, Cheongdo, South Korea

Unmunsa Temple, Cheongdo, South Korea

264, Unmunsa-gil, Unmun-myeon, Cheongdo-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea

Knowing that the monsoon season would begin in mid-June and make travel to every corner of the country considerably less comfortable, I boarded an early morning KTX at Seoul Station bound for Dongdaegu. It was only a few years ago that the journey to Daegu took upward of three hours before the high-speed rail line opened; now, with Dongdaegu reachable in just an hour and a half, even the temples one visits regularly seem to have drawn closer. Unmunsa Temple in Cheongdo-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, has become a place one can reach in just over an hour from Daegu, passing through Gyeongsan along the way.

Described by one aesthetician as a temple most beautiful at dawn, Unmunsa was nestled deep into the foothills of Hogeosan in Cheongdo. Alighting at the temple's car park and following the valley path for some distance, one arrives at a broad, level expanse of ground — and it is here that the temple makes its home. The buildings of Unmunsa are spread across this wide, flat terrain, arrayed on all sides around the Manseiru Pavilion as their center. The Manseiru serves as a lecture hall for the education of student monks and is used for major dharma gatherings and ceremonial events. Built during the restoration of 1105 by National Preceptor Woneung, it stands as a fine example of early Joseon architectural style.

Unmunsa was founded in 560 AD, the twenty-first year of King Jinheung of Silla, by an enlightened monk, and underwent its first major restoration in 608 AD, the thirtieth year of King Jinpyeong's reign, under National Preceptor Wongwang. In the Later Three Kingdoms period, the monk Boyang, returning from study in Tang-dynasty China, rebuilt it as Ogapsa Temple. In recognition of Boyang's service to Goryeo's founder, King Taejo Wang Geon, the temple was granted the royal name Unmun Seonsa — "Unmun Zen Temple" — and the name Unmunsa has remained ever since. Of particular note, the monk Ilyeon was appointed abbot of Unmunsa in 1277 during the reign of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo, and resided there until 1281. It is said that Ilyeon began writing the Samguk Yusa — his monumental record of the Three Kingdoms — during this period, lending the temple yet greater historical significance.

In more recent history, the temple was briefly home to married monks following liberation, from the first abbot Venerable Kim Sangmyeong through to the fourth, Venerable Park Sangung. After the Buddhist order's purification movement of 1950, however, the celibate nun Venerable Jeong Geumgwang was installed as the first fully ordained abbess, and a monastic college was established — one that would go on to boast the largest student body of any such institution in the country. Today it operates as a Bhikkhuni Sangha College, akin to a women's university within the Buddhist world, and this distinction has brought the temple considerable renown.

Unmunsa is not home to any particularly celebrated cultural relics or architectural monuments, yet the temple looks much as it did when I first visited ten years ago — little appears to have changed. On this second visit, in the early days of summer, the temple felt as though its very existence was enough: the thousand-year-old grounds seemed to hold the fragrance of history within them, and that was more than sufficient. When morning mist rolls in and the temple appears to dissolve into the clouds — like a gate opening into the sky itself, drawing the heart quietly inward — I find myself hoping that Unmunsa will remain just as it is ten years from now: a temple one can always return to, whenever the spirit moves.

If you would like to experience a unique side of Korea, the "Land of the Morning Calm," please feel free to reach out. I host small, private guided tours tailored for international visitors.

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